Art Biennale 2011 04.06 27.11 Giardini | Venice The Invisible Pavilion | 54th International Art Exhibition | Venice Biennale
Following the official launch of the Invisible Pavilion—timed with the inauguration of the 54th Venice Biennale on 1st June—today marks the inauguration of the on-line Pavilion, featuring a non-stop stream of data to accompany the exhibition until its end in November. A REAL, UBIQUITOUS, IMAGINARY PAVILION Constant progress in technology, the eternal present, and questionable fakes are what characterise the world of media today, and its borderline approach with one foot in institutions, and the other foot out. Next to the Biennale, the Invisible Pavilion represents the oxymoron that lies in ‘virtual reality’, a sign of the progressive dematerialization of our society, the possibility of taking action on our own, and a reflection, ultimately, on horizontal participation, the eternal utopia of the Internet. BETWEEN THE SIGN, ALTERATION AND HALLUCINATION Nine Artists have been invited to contribute to the pavilion project, performing in the space of the Biennale with their own stream of works during the whole period of the exhibition. What these artists have in common, and hence the reason why they were invited to take part, is their focus on challenging the way we perceive reality, through the conscious, derisive, and highly critical use of new media. The invitation to contribute to the Invisible Pavilion represented yet another chance for them to make a statement on the art industry and its contradictions, within the context of the Biennale. Within the folds of the invisible tesseract, they have reinvented reality through interference and superimposition (as is the case in “Bleamish” by CONTEXT.NET and in “Invisible Watermark” by Constant Dullaart), marked their presence in the squatted areas of the Biennale (Parker Ito), adapted their works to the context, giving them new visibility and new spatiality (such as, for instance, with Jon Rafman’s “Brand New Paint Job” and Artie Vierkant’s “Solvent Studies” and “Image Objects”), shifted the focus on the effects and hallucinations provoked by technology (as in the “Augmented Reality Drug” by REFF - RomaEuropa FakeFactory and in “Monument to the Banana Revolution” by Les Liens Invisibles), and created art interventions specially designed for the occasion (“Show Me Your Digitals” by IOCOSE, and “Augmented Perspectives” by Molleindustria). The stream derived from their works—a space-time continuum extending across the Internet and the real world—can be seen directly in the exhibition spaces of the Venice Biennale through the Layar app (www.layar.com) for iPhones and Android devices, and on-line at www.theinvisiblepavilion.com/flow The art, my friend, is flowing in the wind. ******************** The Invisible Pavilion is a project by Les Liens Invisibles and Simona Lodi with the collaboration of great artists (www.theinvisiblepavilion.com/artists) such as Artie Vierkant, Constant Dullaart, CONT3XT.NET, IOCOSE, Jon Rafman, Molleindustria, Parker Ito, REFF–RomaEuropa FakeFactory. ******************** LINKS AND REFERENCES website www.theinvisiblepavilion.com How the pavilion works www.theinvisiblepavilion.com/how-it-works curatorial text by Simona Lodi www.theinvisiblepavilion.com/press/curatorial-statement.pdf Hi-res pictures www.theinvisiblepavilion.com/press/pictures.zip In cooperation with Manifest.AR International Cyberartist Group (www.manifestar.info) BIO Simona Lodi, art critic and curator, lives in Turin. Since 1993 she has been a contributor to various leading contemporary art journals. Simona's professional career spans New York, London and Turin—a city that has embraced the world of new technology and communication. It is in this context that the Share Festival–Art in the Digital Age, of which Simona is founder and Art Director, has found fertile ground to grow and develop. Les Liens Invisibles (www.lesliensinvisibles.org) is an Italian-based duo of internet artists, Clemente Pestelli and Gionatan Quintini. Most of their artworks—which include an online viral mass suicide performance, an hallucinatory petition service and a series of other works staged on popular social media platforms—have been exhibited internationally in galleries, museums (MAXXI Rome, New School of New York, KUMU Art Museum of Talinn) and international media art festivals (SHARE, Transmediale). Les Liens Invisibles recently received an honorary distinction at the Transmediale Media Art Festival (2011). _______________________________________________ NetBehaviour mailing list [email protected] http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour
